With 25 points between the two hands, stoppers in all suits and no major-suit fit, the tendency is to subside in three no-trump. But sometimes the contract can be tenuous, to say the least, and assumptions, even far-out ones, must be made for it to come home. This deal arose in a trial to select the team to represent the USA some years ago, and declarer was the late Michael Seamon. Seamon died shockingly young, but his talent was undeniable, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame last July.

Against three no-trump, West led the spade 10, which went to the jack and king. East returned a low spade, and Seamon put in the queen, which held. Declarer was aware that in order to fulfill his contract, he needed to rattle off eight quick tricks; if the defenders got in, they surely had three more spade tricks to take, in addition to the one already in the bag, plus the club ace.

Specifically, Seamon needed five tricks from the diamond suit, plus three from hearts — a tall order. So, at trick three, he cashed the heart king and noted the fall of the eight from West. Needing this to be from Q-8 exactly, Seamon had to assume that, being short in one red suit, West was likely to be longer in the other. So he cashed the diamond king, then successfully finessed West for the queen. The heart ace saw the queen drop, and Seamon had his nine tricks for plus 400 and a well-deserved swing.

When you have a combined eight-card holding in a suit, the missing five cards will split 3-2 some two-thirds of the time. But they will split 4-1 a little over a quarter of the time. The second declarer in today’s deal allowed for this possibility, while the first did not — and the results were about what you would expect.

In each room, South ended in the routine spade game after opening two no-trump and going through Stayman. At both tables, South took the lead of the diamond king. After this, the play diverged.

The first declarer immediately did what I suspect at least half of my readers might do — if they hadn’t been warned that there was a trap! He drew all the opponents’ trumps, ending in North. Then he ran the club 10, and when that held, he continued by finessing the jack. But the 4-1 break meant there was no chance for a further finesse, because the second club had to be won in hand. So he had to lose a club trick eventually, and his chance to make the contract had vanished.

The second declarer saw that the club finesse was inevitable. He was aware of the possibility of a 4-1 club break and the club suit becoming blocked, so he carefully led dummy’s club five to the jack at trick two, which held the trick. Only then did he extract all of the defensive trumps, ending in dummy.

His next move was to play the club 10 from dummy and let it run. When this held, he could finesse the club queen and claim.

When South balances with one spade, West rebids his suit, then North makes a responsive double to show a good hand with spade tolerance. (Some would play this as penalty, but in hand-frequency terms, the other meaning makes much more sense.) After South shows his second suit, North reverts to three spades; South then raises himself to game.

West leads out his top hearts, declarer ruffing the second. There is no advantage to be gained in discarding a club loser instead, although it doesn’t hurt. Declarer’s first move is to unblock the spade king-queen; he then crosses to hand with a diamond and cashes the spade acejack, dummy matching West’s discards of a heart and a club.

If diamonds break or the jack falls doubleton, declarer is home, but West shows out on the third round, marking him with precisely a 2=6=2=3 distribution. However, all is not lost, as the final diamond winner brings West under pressure. In the three-card ending, if West comes down to a single heart, declarer puts him on lead with that suit and awaits a lead into his club tenace at trick 12. If West instead bares his club king (never a bad strategy in these positions), South calls for the club ace, and his club queen is the game-going trick.

South knows West holds the club king because if East had started with the red jacks and the club king, he would ‘probably’ have responded to the opening bid. Also, West would ‘really have ‘been’ (really) over (extend)bidding to ‘act’ (bid) twice with only a 10-count.

In today’s deal from a recent knockout match in England, North-South got too high, but it still required good carding to maximize the defensive trump tricks — the theme of all this week’s deals.

South thought he was facing a mild invitation to game, so he bid on. West doubled because he had trump tricks; he led out the club queen, then the jack.

Declarer could mark West with four hearts to the queen for his double, with East presumably holding the black top cards. Leading a low trump at trick three would limit his trump losers to one, but West would take the heart queen and play a third club to force declarer down to trump parity. Declarer could then draw trumps and run the diamonds, but would no longer be able to set up a spade for his 10th trick while East still had the spade ace and the master club.

So declarer had to knock out East’s spade ace, the entry to the long club, at once. He could not cross to the diamond ace, since that was dummy’s late entry to the diamonds, so he led the spade king from hand, hoping for a club continuation, which would have seen him home.

However, East could see that a further club lead would be no good, so he changed tack. Looking to promote a trump trick for his partner, he returned a spade.

Declarer took the spade queen and led a low heart toward dummy, but West took his queen and forced dummy to ruff with a third spade, promoting his heart 10 to the setting trick.

Today’s deal from the European Mixed Teams Championships defeated most defenders. It focuses on this week’s theme of the defenders needing to promote trump tricks for themselves.

East feared wasting one of partner’s trump tricks if he overtook the spade queen, so he let it hold the first trick. West can now visualize five tricks for the defense: two spades, a diamond, a club and a promotion for the heart king on the third spade. While declarer might finesse in hearts even if his side doesn’t maneuver a trump promotion, South won’t finesse once he knows East has the spade aceking.

However, continuing spades at trick two won’t do. East would overtake and play a third round, but declarer could discard his diamond loser. East could lead a further spade, but declarer would ruff in hand and pitch dummy’s club king, losing just three spades and an over-ruff.

West should follow the normal practice of taking the side-suit winners that aren’t needed for communication purposes before trying for a trump promotion. He must cash the club ace before playing a second spade.

Now West’s heart king will be good for the fourth defensive trick if declarer ruffs in on the third spade, with a diamond still to come. And if South discards, then the fourth round of spades will do the trick.

At other tables, some Easts overtook the first spade and shifted to diamonds. Declarer could now succeed by taking his red-suit aces.

Today’s deal is part of the week’s theme of the defenders maximizing their trump tricks. South had reached a respectable suit game when he converted three no-trump to four spades; his decision was sensible because if North didn’t have the spade ace, the South hand might have been worthless in no-trump.

West kicked off with a diamond, taken by dummy’s ace. Declarer naturally began to draw trumps, starting with 10. East knew that West would have led his lowest from three small in his partner’s suit. So the best chance for another trick seemed to lie in trumps. He played small on the first spade, and declarer, unwilling to overtake the 10, left the lead on the table.

When declarer called for a club, East could see he had little chance of a second club trick, since his ace was about to fall. To keep the defense a step ahead, he rose with the ace, then took the diamond king, followed by another diamond. His plan was to promote a trump trick for his side when his partner had as little as the spade eight.

Declarer ruffed the third diamond high and led the spade jack, but when East took the ace and played another diamond, the jig was up. The defense had to take another trick for one down, in a maneuver that represented a double trump promotion.

Note that if declarer had guessed to play the diamond queen on the first trick, the only way to set the game would have been to win with the king … and return a diamond.

Today’s deal to continue our week’s theme of trump promotions comes from “On the Other Hand — A Bridge From East to West” by Martin Hoffman and Kathie Wei-Sender.

South, who had put himself in four hearts instead of letting his partner play three no-trump, won the opening diamond lead with the king, then cashed the spade queen. He then led the club two, and West took his ace, fearing the two was a singleton. West returned his remaining diamond, and South won with dummy’s ace, then threw his remaining diamonds on the spade ace-king.

The question now was whether the defenders could score three trump tricks. They did not, because South led dummy’s heart to his own queen, and East won the next heart lead with the 10. On East’s diamond lead, South thoughtfully ruffed with the heart king. Then he led a heart and cashed the remaining trumps to make the game.

Nicely played, but the defense would have prevailed if West had won the second trump trick with the jack. He could then lead a spade, allowing East to ruff with the heart ace. Then a diamond lead would promote West’s remaining heart as the setting trick.

Does that mean West was at fault here? Yes and no. East could have made the defense easier by playing the heart 10 on the nine. Then West would have been forced to win the second trump trick, and now the trump promotion would be much easier to find.

Today, we see an expert following a textbook play. Alas for him, he had failed to realize that it is sometimes necessary to set aside the manuals when other issues demand it. Fortunately for our hero, the defense were also on autopilot, not using their imagination sufficiently to generate extra trump tricks for themselves, which is the theme of this week’s deals.

Four hearts was the normal contract on this board, and Zia Mahmood and Norberto Bocchi reached it straightforwardly. When West led the diamond king, which went to the six, three, and seven (a routine falsecard from Zia). West now understandably, but perhaps a trifle unimaginatively, continued with a second diamond, which Zia won and crossed to hand twice in clubs to take two finesses in hearts, making the routine 10 tricks for an above-average score.

Unremarkable, you may say. Yes, but Zia had given the defense a chance when he ducked the first diamond, a play that was unlikely to gain him anything.

Similarly, West might have reasoned that if declarer had two diamonds, continuing the suit would achieve nothing, while even if he had three diamonds, there could be no entries back to the West hand to reach the defense’s second trick in that suit. If West had shifted to a spade at trick two, the defense could lead that suit at every opportunity to arrange a trump promotion for the heart queen that Zia would be unable to stop.

All this week’s deals share a theme of the defenders utilizing their trumps to unusually good effect. Two of the maneuvers available to the defense in trumps are the ruff and the uppercut. Logic argues that if one defender takes ruffs, his partner will be the one to obtain the promotions, but today’s deal shows East-West scoring well on defense with the defender who had taken the ruff also being the one who ended up with the promoted trump.

At just about every table, South in third seat opened a leaddirecting one spade on his four-card major. West risked a twoheart overcall, and North ended the auction with a two-spade call. I’m sure North was probably happy when he put down his dummy, but that didn’t last long.

After a diamond lead to the 10 and queen, East cashed his ace and gave West a ruff. Now came the heart ace and a heart to dummy’s king, after which declarer ran the club jack to West’s king. That player cashed the heart queen, then led another heart. Dummy ruffed with the six, and East over-ruffed with the 10, forcing declarer’s jack.

South next cashed the club ace and ruffed the queen in dummy, then led dummy’s last trump to the queen and West’s ace. When West led his last heart at trick 12, East ruffed in with the eight, forcing the over-ruff. The spade nine represented the third undertrick for plus 300 and a 90% board.

Two down would have been virtually an average board; maybe there is a message for all those third-in-hand openers!